My old university friend Dominic Cummings has never believed the rules of our society apply to him

“There were no rules, fear was unknown and sleep was out of the question.” This line from American author Hunter S Thompson was Dominic Cummings’s motto when we were at Exeter College, Oxford, together.

With a group of friends who called themselves “The Wastrels”, Dom would go on late-night sorties around the city, drink whisky into the early morning and play endless games of chess. He had no interest in the rules or institutions of college life – or for behaving like a typical student. Unlike his future boss Boris Johnson, he didn’t join the Oxford Union or jump into a rowing crew or even prop up the college bar.

Awkward yet arrogant, he wasn’t interested in exchanging small talk but enjoyed provoking a row, sharing views that were deliberately extreme and designed to enrage. A night in the pub with Dom was never relaxing. But he inspired loyalty in his fellow Wastrels, a pattern that’s been repeated throughout his career. Conventional, rule-abiding people are drawn to him: he empowers them to be daring and take risks.

Cummings has dedicated his career to opposing the status quo, even winning an election for Boris Johnson on an anti-elitist ticket. But during the pandemic, he’s found himself in the inconvenient position of both having to set the rules and abide by them. Naturally it couldn’t work; laws are for the little people.

As we saw on Monday evening during his performance in the Downing Street garden, Cummings has no comprehension the rules – the ones that he helped to set – actually apply to him. We shouldn’t be surprised at his admission it didn’t even occur to him to tell the prime minister that he was heading north with his family. Why would it?

Whatever he claims, his decision to break lockdown was based purely on personal choice. It wasn’t out of necessity but because he wanted to. It was convenient for him. As a result, his explanation is laughably full of holes. He’s expecting us to believe his childcare situation was at once so desperate that he had to take his sick wife on a five-hour car journey but also that it was fine for her to travel because she didn’t have a fever or a cough. Likewise, we are expected to accept that a trip to Barnard Castle on his wife’s birthday was to test his driving ability with sore eyes. It’s farcical.

Viewers of yesterday’s bank holiday press conference could sense his irritation at having to explain himself. Make no mistake, it will have been anathema to Cummings to go through the torture of talking about his son’s toilet trips. He might dress as if he wants to attract attention, but Dominic always wants to be controlling events from behind the scenes.

Now, though, the myth of the maverick genius has been destroyed. The only mystery remaining is why Boris Johnson is staking his career on an unremarkable-sounding man who’s been caught out while the rest of us do our national duty to stay at home and protect the NHS. The very fact the PM’s top aide was forced to give a prime-time press conference means it’s imperative he resigns – as Alastair Campbell, Tony Blair’s right-hand man, once pointed out, the special adviser should never become the story.

Dominic Cummings has humiliated every single member of the cabinet who tweeted on his behalf on Saturday, and his boss – who inexplicably still stood up for him on Sunday night. As they are discovering to their cost, it’s impossible to defend someone who has never believed that the rules of our society apply to them. After a while, it will all start to unravel.